HARWICH – The Monomoy field hockey team is heading back to the Division 4 state quarterfinals

After opening the postseason with a dominant 9-0 victory over No. 29 Amesbury on Saturday, fourth-seeded Monomoy secured a spot in the quarterfinals Monday with a 7-1 win over No. 13 Georgetown in Harwich.

“We executed the strategy the way we wanted to,” Monomoy's first-year coach Kyle Cappallo said after Monday's win. “We used our speed, we came prepared and we're amping it up. Now this is when I feel like the state tournament really begins.”

With the win, the Sharks (11-4-5) will host fifth-seeded Lynnfield in the quarterfinals at 1 p.m. Friday.

Although an opening-round win might give some teams extra confidence, Cappallo said the Sharks weren’t too moved by Saturday’s blowout. Simply put, the team entered the postseason knowing they were among the best teams in the tournament’s 32-team field after challenging itself throughout the regular season.

“We have the toughest opponent rating in Division 4, and we’re the only team on the Cape that tied Sandwich, which is a No. 2 ranking in Division 3,” Cappallo said. “On top of top-10 ranked teams like Falmouth and Sandwich that are in the Cape and Islands League, we also played Uxbridge already, who is the No. 1 seed in Division 4 and was last year’s champion, as well as Cohasset, a No. 3 seed.”

One of the keys that has led to Monomoy’s success is having plenty of depth throughout the lineup. Many of the players also gained valuable experience last fall when the team’s Division 4 state tournament run reached the state semifinals.

The experience was on display against Amesbury, as junior Susannah Brown netted a hat trick, sophomore Ella Reeves scored two goals, freshman Samantha Clarke notched a goal and three assists, and senior Helen DiGioVanni tabbed a goal and an assist.

Clarke led the charge Monday with four goals and an assist, while senior Carly Dimock, Brown and sophomore Emily Layton each added a goal.

“We have a lot of talent on this team,” Cappallo said. “We have a lot of experienced field hockey players. I think that on paper we’re one of the deepest teams around just because of the breadth and depth of experience on the team. We have great leadership in two of our seniors, Carly Dimock, who’s going to play Division 1 at Bryant, and Helen DiGiovanni, who is going to play at Babson.”

Cappallo said the Sharks know the matchups will continue to get tougher if they are able to continue to advance. However, they welcome the challenge, knowing they still haven’t reached their ceiling quite yet.

“I think we still have yet to play our best hockey, I think that’s going to come in the tournament,” Cappallo said. “There’s nobody that we’re going to face that we don’t think we can beat if we play our best hockey. So, we’re just taking it one game at a time and are prepared to put forth our best effort toward executing our strategy, and we’ll let the chips fall where they may.”

Dimock said the seniors are excited to head back to the quarterfinals and noted the team is determined to make up for last year's loss in the state semifinals.

“I'm excited to do it again,” said Dimock, a Chatham resident. “Hopefully we'll get the outcome that we had hoped for last year. I know we want to make the seniors who graduated last year proud and coach Kyle proud.

“If we keep playing this way, which I think we will, we can go really far.”

Added Layton, “It's like our year at redemption after everything that happened last year. Being able to win these games and to win them by a wide margin shows our hard work.”

Nauset Field Hockey Falls

The Nauset field hockey team saw its season end in heartbreak on Saturday when it suffered a 2-1 loss at Hopkinton in a Division 2 opening-round matchup.

The Warriors finished the season with a 9-7-3 mark. They entered the tournament as the No. 20 seed and hung tough against No. 13 Hopkinton (10-4-5), which scored the game-winning goal with about a minute remaining in the contest.

Email Brad Joyal at brad@capecodchronicle.com. Twitter: @BradJoyal